The present invention relates to electronic equipment, recording medium and a method of changing parameter settings on an LCD panel or a screen of a computer.
A conventional method of changing various settings (parameters) used in software or the like on the LCD panel of a device or the screen of a computer involves pushing switches, keyboard keys or other types of switches or holding same down by a user. Normally, a user""s push of a switch puts the device into a setting change mode and if the switch held down, the setting is incremented or decremented as long as the switch is held down.
On the other hand, so-called pressure-sensitive controllers are used as input devices for electronic equipment represented by computers, and as input devices for entertainment systems represented by game machines, for example. A pressure-sensitive controller is a unit wherein, when pressure is applied with a finger of a user directly to a control element connected to a pressure-sensitive device, the pushing pressure is provided as a pressure-sensing value output. A specific structure thereof is, for example, a pressure-sensitive type controller disclosed in the publication of Japanese utility model application No. JP-B-H1-40545, wherein pressure-sensitive output is provided as input to a VCO (variable control oscillator) and the output of the VCO is used for repeated fire in a game.
It is an object of the present invention to make the changing of setpoints for various parameters on an LCD panel or the screen of a computer by means of the pushing or continuous pushing of a simple ON/OFF switch by a user into an easier-to-use interface for users.
This and other objects of the present invention are attained by electronic equipment which comprises a switch connected to pressure-sensitive means, a processing circuit that performs processing depending on an output value of the switch, and display means that displays the results of processing of the processing circuit, wherein the processing circuit changes settings of parameters on the display means, depending on the output value of the switch.
A recording medium according to the present invention is suggested, on which is recorded a computer-readable and executable software program that performs processing by taking as instructions an output from a controller which has pressure-sensitive means, wherein the software program changes settings depending on the output value of the controller.
A method of changing the settings of parameters of electronic equipment according to the present invention comprises the steps of: sensing the pushing pressure by a user by pressure-sensitive means, generating a pressure-sensing output signal corresponding to the pushing pressure, changing settings of electronic equipment or a computer by increments that depend on the magnitude of the pressure-sensing output signal, and displaying the changed value of the setting on a monitor of the electronic equipment or the computer.
Moreover, the method of changing the settings of parameters of electronic equipment according to the present invention may comprise the steps of sensing the pushing pressure of a user by pressure-sensitive means, generating a pressure-sensing output signal corresponding to the pushing pressure, changing settings of a computer by increments that depend on a percent change between a previous pressure-sensing output signal and a current pressure-sensing output signal, and displaying the changed value of the setting on a monitor of the computer.